I think a major issue in the Pusan crash, perhaps, was that the crew weren't aware of the nature of the differences in obstacle presentation in TERPS charts v. PANS OPS charts.
I don't think
PR China use TERPS, so the crew may not have been aware (as I wasn't until fairly recently) that TERPS don't provide any obstacle information outside of the (restrictive) circling areas. The PANS OPS circling areas are very generous by comparison, and obstacle data outside the circling area is shown.
Maybe if the obstacles in the vicinity of the one that they hit had been clearly visible on the chart, they may not have chosen to fly the circling manoeuvre in the first place.
Our SOPs prohibit circling outside our domestic airspace for that very reason - we use PANS OPS.
But, having said that, we still have to show competency in hand-flown OEI ILS and circling approaches in the sim - it's a regulatory requirement here.